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Opinion Contributor

A conservative's call to action

We all know that most, if not all, leaders of conservative organizations in our country are troubled by the recent “fiscal cliff” bill that passed Congress. But I am also troubled by the ineffective communications with America’s electorate regarding the damaging components of this legislation. Time and again, Americans have cited runaway spending and our debt as the federal challenges that most concern them. This bill did nothing to help those concerns but, rather, only made matters worse.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that almost 4 trillion dollars of additional debt will be accumulated over a decade as a result of the additional spending in this one bill. Let’s not forget that in 2008, President Barack Obama called that level of debt “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic.”

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This bill was hailed as a victory for the president. He got what he wanted — increasing taxes on the rich. But despite his false campaign promises to help the middle class, taxes went up for all Americans. And according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, middle-class workers will take a bigger hit to their income proportionately than those earning $200,000 to $500,000 under this “deal.”

We must defend against mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren and changing forever the America we know and fight to defend. Members of Congress have to pledge to never again vote for a preposterous proposal of such nature while in office. Already many of my conservative colleagues are contemplating whether it’s a better long-term strategy to spend a significant percentage of our available campaign resources in 2014 to further purge the GOP of moderates or “soft” conservatives. I hope not. We need true conservatives to vote as such and give us confidence that we can spend available resources in defeating progressive liberals at the ballot box so that real change can come to America.

Moving forward, House members should agree — at the very least — to:

• Not bring legislation to the floor of the House unless the majority of the Republican caucus agrees with the proposal and there is sufficient support to actually pass legislation.

• Notify the White House that you expect a proposed budget and list of spending cuts from the Obama administration before you will begin deliberations on the debt ceiling debate.